50 private schools guilty of price fixing

Fifty English private schools broke competition laws by sharing their plans for fee rises, the Office of Fair Trading has said.

In a provisional ruling, the OFT criticised schools including Eton, Harrow and Winchester.

As a result of their "anti-competitive" collaboration, these schools succeeded in charging parents higher fees than would otherwise have been the case, the OFT said.

The schools now have several months to make their cases to the OFT before it reaches a final ruling.

The schools are facing "financial penalties" as a result of their action, the OFT said.

It found that the schools had exchanged information on their plans for increasing the fees they would charge for boarders and day pupils between 2001 and 2004.

The system worked through a survey, known as the "Sevenoaks survey", which was updated regularly.

Between February and June each year schools would detail their fees for the following September. The information was then circulated in the form of tables among all the schools involved.

The tables were updated and sent round again between four and six times each year as schools "developed their fee increase proposals", the OFT said.

"This regular and systematic exchange of confidential information as to intended fee increases was anti-competitive and resulted in parents being charged higher fees than would otherwise have been the case," the OFT said.